Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Barnes Vortex 80g TTSX .243 on deer?

Has anyone used these on deer? Are there better deer bullets?

I killed a couple of deer with the Barnes Vortex factory loads using this bullet.Seemed to work fine with shoulder shot and lung shots.close to 2 inch entrance and smaller exit. This was less than 100 yard shots on doe of about 75 and 100 pounds.

If you wanna break shoulders and have a blood trail this may be one of the best.

Yea they worked fine for me ,shot them with a Remington 7600 Synthetic Pump 243.
The Barnes Factory ammo was also very accurate,The rifle will put 3 shots in an inch at 100 yards !

I've shot two deer this season with 80 grain hornady gmx, a 130 lb doe and a 290 lb buck. Both deer were about 30-40 yards away, both shot just behind the shoulder and both ran about 50 yards with good blood trails. I can't complain. I would assume ttsx would have done very similar.

The 80 TTSX has been highly effective in my sample size of 3 but the farthest shot so far has been about 90 yds.

i have only killed deer with a 22 cal 62 grain TSX going about 2800 FPS, thinking of dropping to 53TTSX for more velocity. used a 100TTSX at 3000 in 25 cal on a few as well. Don't see any need for lead in my food, as an example a 22 cal 75grain bonded swift S2 will not punch thru shoulders on a 150 pound deer while a 62 TSX sails thru like it leaving detroit in February headed to Maui for a 2 week vacation.

My daughters use the 243 80grn TTSX Vortex for white tails. Our deer are 100-250 lbs. Most shots are 50-100 yards. With a sample of 15 they had 9 DRT. 14 exits with several quartering shots. The 6 runners averaged less than 20 yards. These pills have impressed me as well as the guys standing around the skinning rack. AS bcraig said I see larger entrance wounds and smaller exits but the innards are soup. They may blow the petal's off at close range but the slug will usually exit. I've seen a few 5 hole exits. One large(slug) with four smaller(petals). I think the slug will weigh more than most cup and core upon exit but can't verify that.

I have not found or seen a better combination for the 243 and WT in our hunting environment.

I shot 3 doe this year with my 25x30-30 AI 21" contender carbine this year with the 80gr TTSX. The bullets performed great. thee was blood trails but really there was no need when they fell with in 20 yards.

80 GMX here and I assume the 80 TTSX would be near identical, bullet performance has been excellent in my limited use. Broken bones, heavy and short blood trails and 2 leaking holes have been my experience.

You will for sure think you are shooting a bigger cal when slinging mono 80's from a .243 Win.

Have shot a bunch of whitetails with 80 TTSX's - light recoil and picture perfect performance so far.

80 GMX - performs just like an 80 TTSX as far as I can tell...in behind the shoulder and broke the off shoulder...



85 TSX through both shoulders - and he crowded 300 lbs. by my guess...Exited and left a substantial blood trail for the 70 yards he somehow covered.





Have to agree - a 243 with 80/85 TTSX/TSX/GMX hits game like a whole lot more gun.

DJ

The 80TTSX in the lungs is a rather slow killer compared to some other softer bullets. Gave me some long tracking jobs that I was not used to. Hit bone and your golden.

Agreed. Same experience here. It's never been a problem or prevented recovering an animal IME, but these tougher bullets seem to expand less - especially on softer tissue impact.

Killed a 5 1/2 year old hill country buck the other day with a 100gr Hornady Interlock out of my 243. Broke both shoulders, and didn't get an exit - bullet was under the hide on the off shoulder - but he only made two jumps and fell dead 10 yards from where he was shot.

My daughter made the same shot on a big doe a couple of days later with a 70g TSX out of her 223, and the doe went 60-70 yards plowing with her nose before she went down. Got an exit (like always) and saw her fall, and didn't backtrack on her blood trail, but it would have required a little effort to find her if we'd been in thick brush.

Seems there are always tradeoffs, and I sure like putting them down right now, but I also like two holes and not having to worry about tough angles if they are presented on a shot one needs to take.

Since I usually shoot shoulders or mid to high behind the shoulder, the TTSX is dandy. Even if I can't take out both shoulders, I'll usually try to hit one going in or out - prefer to hit bone on entrance - definitely seems to kill them quicker. High behind the shoulder usually drops them right there.

DJ